No flood of viewers for Deluge, Farnham

June 26 2003By Ross Warneke

It was a week of surprises in last week's TV ratings. For example, while it was no surprise that John Farnham's farewell concert on Seven won its Sunday night timeslot, it was surprising that it attracted fewer than 1.5 million viewers nationally - 700,000 fewer than the week's top-rating show, The Block, and fewer than 600,000 in Melbourne. Given the huge amount spent by the network on acquiring the rights to the concert and then mounting the telecast, the figures represent a disappointing return on investment and confirm that the days of big-budget "live" TV concerts are numbered.

As well, Channel Ten's critically applauded and star-studded Australian miniseries After the Deluge got the thumbs down from viewers. Few believed the first part could out-rate the Farnham concert on Sunday night, and it didn't, attracting fewer than 1.3 million viewers around the country. But the second half on Monday, when it had no special events scheduled against it, saw a big switch-off. It barely attracted a million viewers.

On Wednesday, Nine's National Driving Test fell far short of the figures recorded by last year's National IQ Test. Nationally, the IQ test - the top-rating show on Australian TV in 2002 - scored 2.8 million viewers. The driving test managed 1.9 million, and came third in last week's national ratings behind The Block and Nine's Sunday night news. In Melbourne the National Driving Test averaged 646,289 viewers and was fifth in the week's local ratings, down from 915,880 for IQ Test last year. The network might produce another IQ test but it is unlikely to repeat the driving test, especially as it was discovered the next day that at least three of the 55 answers were at least questionable and probably were wrong.

The Block confirmed last week that it is the hit show of 2003, coming first again in the national and Melbourne ratings. Nine's weekend news bulletins also performed strongly. But yet again, the biggest surprise was the continuing growth in support for Nine's veteran Australia's Funniest Home Video Show. Last year it did not even make the list of the 20 top regular programs on Melbourne TV, averaging only 448,000 viewers for the year, but last Saturday night it scored 654,315 and was Melbourne's fourth most-watched program for the week.

Overall, Nine won the week with almost one in three (33.1 per cent) night-time viewers. Seven was a distant second with a slightly improved 25.3 per cent share of the week's audience. Ten came next (22.5), followed by the ABC (15.4) and SBS on an unusually low 3.8 per cent.");document.write("

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Another surprise was Today Tonight's victory over A Current Affair in the national ratings. In Melbourne, ACA continued to lead, but its winning margin narrowed last week to only 83,000 viewers.

That represents a substantial switch by viewers from Nine to Seven after the 6pm news. Nine's news averaged 526,470 on weeknights last week, with Seven's news averaging only 357,557.

The switch-over at 6.30pm is understood to be worrying Nine Network executives who had hoped Ray Martin's return to the desk at ACA would see the program pulling further ahead of Today Tonight this year.